As increasingly diverse kinds of documents get created in PDF, you may find yourself with a need to protect confidential information and you’ve got a lot of PDF security options for doing so.

One such PDF security option is the watermark. You’ve probably seen physical watermarks on everything from legal and government documents to authorised checks. When you want to create a PDF document that can be immediately recognise as containing highly confidential information, you can watermark it similarly to how watermarks work in the non-digital world. And there are good reasons to do so.

For one thing, applying a watermark to your PDF enables you to set up another way to categorise your PDF documents. You can put PDF files that are watermarked instantly into the “for your eyes only” category, distinct from other types of PDF documents that are offered for wider distribution.

Watermarks also offer a step toward safeguarding intellectual property. Not only can you can set PDF security settings to limit activities like printing and making changes, watermarking also prevents recipients from misusing your documents.

Watermarking your PDF document can signify whether the PDF document is a copy or an original, who the company that authorises a form is, even the kind of PDF document, such as an estimate, invoice, and so on.

Perhaps most important of all, a watermark on your PDF document is hard to miss once you’ve stamped it onto your pages. Whether recipients print the document or simply view it onscreen, a watermark shows the classification of your entire file at a glance, making it an ideal PDF security feature.

That’s important because, sadly, even PDF documents that are protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions are still at some level of risk. Would-be thieves have been known to use screen shots, cameras, and video capture to make copy of sensitive PDF documents.

Foxit PhantomPDF makes it far less attractive to do so by enabling you to insert dynamic security watermarks into Microsoft Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) protected PDF documents. A dynamic watermark means the image gets applied automatically as your rights managed PDF document is viewed. Dynamic security watermarks automatically display viewer identity information such as the person’s name, email, employee ID, and the time/date that they’re displaying the protected PDF document. By using a dynamic security watermark, you can pinpoint anyone responsible for a leak of confidential information if copies of the protected documents suddenly start circulating.

Foxit Reader also will display dynamic security watermarks on AD RMS protected PDF documents so you can be sure that even those just using it will be aware of the document’s confidentiality. (Just another reason why Reader is among the best PDF readers available, in our humble opinion. And another reason it’s a secure PDF reader as well.)

So the next time you’re creating a PDF document and want that extra level of security and professionalism, stamp it with a watermark to let anyone viewing it know it’s protected.